Followership: Seminar

One aspect of followership is captured in Aristotle’s view that one “who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” Under this guide, understanding the principles of followership is a necessary component for developing leadership skills. But the value of understanding concepts of followership extends beyond viewing this competency as preparation for practicing leadership at some future point in time. Understanding the principles of followership is essential to create, contribute to and lead effective teams.

In 1988 Robert Kelley wrote “In Praise of Followers” which characterized an individual’s followership attribute based on the the person’s level of organizational engagement and their critical thinking skills (which Kelley mapped to one’s level of independence, with critical thinkers being more independent in their actions). Using this characterization, individuals can be classified as passive, conformist, alienated and effective followers, with the category of survivor used to describe individuals who float among each classification based on the path of least resistance for any particular work challenge. Passive followers do little more than the assigned tasks, conformist followers present a risk in that they are not likely to initiate new ideas that could help the team, and alienated followers can lead to disrupted teams. Effective followers are highly valued as problem solvers, risk takers and self-starters, adding much to the team because of these attributes.

Leadership can influence an individual’s adoption of a particular followership mode and as such it is important for leaders to realize how their actions can affect their team. Leadership is needed to uniquely manage each followership mode and to cultivate effective followers using specific techniques and approaches. Many of the skills that define a strong leader also define a strong follower, though a strong follower need also be humble, respectful and supportive of the unit leader. Followers do not lack power and influence and their contributions to the team’s overall effectiveness is critical to a unit’s success.